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Filmmaker Nicole Holofcener recently received a Academy-Award nomination for adapted screenplay and won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film "Can You Ever Forgive Me?." We'll revisit our conversation with Nicole – when she stopped by we talked about another one of her recent projects, "The Land of Steady Habits." She'll also discuss her childhood growing up among Hollywood filmmaking royalty. Show notes

**Warning: This episode contains spoilers from The Americans series finale. If you, like Margaret, want to avoid the spoilers, skip from 7:01 to 14:20.**

This week, Margaret Wappler and Karen Tongson are joined by Alonso Duralde, one of the hosts of the Max Fun podcast Who Shot Ya?, a movie podcast that isn’t hosted by dude-bros. The gang will discuss the finale of FX Series The Americans and the effect of the Cold War on pop culture.

Alonso is all about is all about National Drive-In Day, which is on June 6th but can absolutely be celebrated all month. Margaret is all about Ali Wong’s new Netflix Special Hard Knock Wife, which has gained a lot of attention for being equal parts hilarious, honest and raunchy. Karen is all about the finale of The Americans which - SPOILER ALERT - she and Alonso will discuss in detail.

And in honor the Russian spy drama coming to an end, the team will take a look at what effect the Cold War, nuclear anxiety and cloak-and-dagger politics had on pop culture, both in the modern context and in the 80’s.

This week, we are serving all sorts of pop culture realness - starting with our first impressions of the new Ryan Murphy series, Pose, on FX. Amita shares how Viceland's My House influenced her viewing experience of Pose and Sean comments on why both shows are helping bring a piece of LGBTQ culture to the masses.

Then, Amita shares her thoughts and honest critique about Kanye West's new 7 song album, Ye, and revealing that he is bipolar.

Plus, we discuss if the idea of a Roseanne spinoff is smart or problematic.

And Sean gives a rare high rating to Amita's big sell from last week- a TED Talk by Tracee Ellis Ross.

This week, Guy and Margaret are joined by the host of My Favorite Murder, Karen Kilgariff, as well as LA Weekly film critic April Wolfe to talk FX's Feud, the Ryan Murphy miniseries Guy describes as "the most important story in the gay canon". Also, GUY BRANUM KNOWS WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN IN GAME OF THRONES SEASON SEVEN!!! Like, for real. No joke.

The camp level in the Feud discussion is high, while the analysis runs deep. Plus, April tells us about her affection for a French vegan turned cannibal in RAW; Margaret explains what happened to the real-life daughters of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford; Karen is legit scared by the Remy Ma/Nicki Minaj; Guy divulges the series of events that occurred which enabled him to read a GoT season 7 script.

In this episode of Dead Pilots Society, Ben Blacker interviews John Hodgman (The Daily Show, Pitch Perfect 2, Married, Ragnorak) regarding his dead pilot, Only Child.This episode was recorded live from San Francisco Sketchfest 2016. Along with John's interview, you'll also listen to a never-before-heard live table read of Only Child performed by some of today's funniest comedic actors like:

John Hodgman as John Hodgman, Janet Varney as Bridget and Mom, John Ross Bowie as Dad, Abe Chabon as Miles, Mark Gagliardi as Ed, Simon, and Basoonist, Josh Malina as Alex and Dr. Horchow, Adam Savage as Paul, Sage Ryan as Tim Fitch, Hal Lublin as Coach Mac, Ben Acker as CJ, John Roderick as Dr. Mister, Samantha Sadoff as Tina, and Abby Wait as Posie. Stage directions read by Andrew Reich.

Guy, Margaret, and Wynter are joined by writer and host of The Gilmore Guys podcast, Demi Adejuyigbe to talk about Atlanta on FX! How long should this show go for? What makes this show really shine? What’s with the Justin Beiber episode?! Plus, Demi tells us what it’s like to write on The Good Place, Wynter is excited for Westworld, Margaret doesn’t get Bruno Mars, and Guy talks about one of the biggest arguments he and Demi had over Macklemore.

Judy Greer engages in fan-profiling. It sounds kind of sketchy, but before you get upset -- know that it's nothing bad. It's just a useful tool. Strangers stop her in the street, or at the airport, or in coffee shops all the time. It's always a variation on the same question... "What do I know you from?" And they won't let her go until she can help them solve the riddle.

She's an actress, so they probably know her from one of her many roles as "the best friend", in a movie like The Wedding Planner or Thirteen Going on Thirty. Or maybe they recognize her from her role as the slightly unhinged secretary Kitty Sanchez in Arrested Development. It could be any number of things, since Greer has almost a hundred credits on her IMDb page.

She rarely plays the lead, however, and so people often don't know her name.

Greer joins us this week to talk about love for the animated series Archer, the modest Midwestern roots that never allow her to turn down a role, and the freedom she finds in not being the leading lady -- and of course, she'll fan-profile our host, Jesse. Her book I Don't Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star is available now in paperback.

Greer co-stars in the FX series Married, which begins its second season this week.

In the early 1990s, the hip hop group Digable Planets broke through with their single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)". The single was jazzy and laid-back, and became a crossover hit. The trio were pegged by some as a counterpoint to gangsta rap, but they didn't love the efforts to categorize their sound. They went further on their next boundary-pushing release, the classic record Blowout Comb. The album was critically acclaimed, but didn't sell well, and the group drifted apart shortly afterward.

Founding member Ishmael Butler was only in his mid 20s when Digable Planets broke up. And so he tried other things, like filmmaking. He still made music, but the releases were few and far between. A few years ago, he teamed up with Tendai Maraire to form a new group called Shabazz Palaces.

Shabazz Palaces' most recent release is called Lese Majesty, and it expands on their interstellar sound. Shabazz Palaces is playing shows and festivals across the U.S. this summer and fall.

Butler spoke to us about his days as a indie label gopher, the awkward audition Digable Planets had to endure for a record company executive, and the the transformative sounds of Shabazz Palaces.

Nat Faxon is an actor. You maybe saw him on Ben and Kate. He co-wrote the Oscar-winning script for The Descendants, which starred George Clooney, and also co-directed and co-wrote The Way Way Back. Faxon's been working as an actor since the early 2000s. Mostly in bit parts, the sidekick, the comic relief. Now he's got a leading role on Married, a new comedy on FX.

Married is a dark comedy about a married couple, played by Faxon and Judy Greer. The couple has been together for ten years and is growing apart, tugged in separate directions by their children, a lack of steady unemployment, and uncertain finances.

Faxon talks about how the show relates to his real-life married life, why he enjoys just being an actor instead of running the show, and the uncomfortable situation in which he first met George Clooney.

It’s fair to say that Werner Herzog is a one-of-a-kind filmmaker. He’s made critically-acclaimed documentaries, like Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. And some art-house staples like Fitzcarraldo. But he also made Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans -- where a crack-smoking Nicholas Cage has hallucinations of iguanas and a breakdancing Mafioso. And don’t forget that Herzog was the SUBJECT of a film called Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

So, it should come as no surprise that there wasn't one day when he became an artist. He sort of always knew. He tells us about growing up in Bavaria, how walking the Albanian border taught him more than film school ever could, and why he just wasn't impressed by the first moving images he saw.

Werner Herzog has a new Blu-Ray boxset coming out later this month from Shout! Factory. It collects sixteen of his earliest films -- most of them on Blu-Ray for the first time. It's called Herzog: The Collection.

Mimi Pond was an art school dropout in 1970s Oakland, and she was trying to figure out what to be. She walked into a diner and asked for a job application. Instead of a resume, the manager asked her to tell him a joke. She got the job. Her new graphic novel and fictionalized memoir, Over Easy, is based on her time waiting tables at said diner.

Pond found herself surrounded by storage room sex, assorted sniffables, and a cast of characters so big she couldn't fit them all in her memoir.

She discusses why she always knew she'd be a cartoonist (even as a kid), the mastermind and hiring manager behind the "anarchic punk opera" that was her workplace, and the very specific, improvisational nature of waiting tables.

The Beach Boys had a lot on the line in 1967. How do you follow up huge commercial hits like "Surfin' USA" and "Barbara Ann", and the experimental, influential Pet Sounds? Jesse explains why 1967's Smiley Smile is great all on its own.

Judy Greer engages in fan-profiling. It sounds kind of sketchy, but before you get upset -- know that it's nothing bad. It's just a useful tool. Strangers stop her in the street, or at the airport, or in coffee shops all the time. It's always a variation on the same question... "What do I know you from?" And they won't let her go until she can help them solve the riddle.

She's an actress, so they probably know her from one of her many roles as "the best friend", in a movie like The Wedding Planner or Thirteen Going on Thirty. Or maybe they recognize her from her role as the slightly unhinged secretary Kitty Sanchez in Arrested Development. It could be any number of things, since Greer has almost a hundred credits on her IMDb page.

She rarely plays the lead, however, and so people often don't know her name.

Greer joins us this week to talk about love for the animated series Archer, the modest Midwestern roots that never allow her to turn down a role, and the freedom she finds in not being the leading lady -- and of course, she'll fan-profile our host, Jesse. Her new book, I Don't Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star is available now. You can also catch her in one of our favorite series, Archer, on FX, or on her new sitcom Married this July.

We often talk to artists about their influences -- the movies, music, and art that inspired them creatively. Some of that stuff is so good and so perfect that they sometimes wish they’d made it themselves.
This segment is about just those kind of things. It's called "I Wish I'd Made That."

This week, we talk to Nick Stoller. He's the director of the new Seth Rogen comedy Neighbors. But the thing he wishes he'd made isn't a comedy. It's a well-crafted science fiction movie that had him sitting in shocked silence -- Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men.

If you know the English actor and comedian Richard Ayoade by sight, it's probably from his role as IT worker Maurice Moss in the English sitcom The IT Crowd. Or maybe you've even seen him alongside American movie stars like Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn in The Watch.

He's got a very precise and funny presence on-screen, but he's most comfortable behind the camera. He co-created and directed the perfectly stilted and styled horror-slash-medical drama Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, and he's also directed two feature films. The first, 2011's Submarine, is a coming-of-age movie about a teenager's solipsism and romantic obsessions. His new film, The Double, is a comedic drama, and an exploration of the self and identity based on a Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel of the same name.

'The Double' is about a lonely, unremarkable government clerk named Simon, played by Jesse Eisenberg, whose life is slowly usurped when James, a new employee, shows up -- also played by Jesse Eisenberg. James is a physical double of Simon. Personality-wise, though, they’re the opposite. James is self-assured and charismatic, everything Simon wishes he could be, but isn't.

Ayoade joins us this week to talk about working with Jesse Eisenberg, forming identity, and why it's hard to sit back and enjoy his own work.

People often talk about two phases of Bill Murray's career. Think of Caddyshack and Ghostbusters in the 80s. Then, Lost In Translation and Broken Flowers in the 2000s. But there’s an oft-overlooked Bill Murray movie that was released in 1990; and you’ve got to watch it.

Jesse shares his love for the only movie Bill Murray has ever directed -- Quick Change.

So there's some stuff you should really know about, and maybe you don't. This week, Chuck Bryant and Josh Clark of the Stuff You Should Know podcast fill us in on the wonderful world of Lucha Libre (also known as Mexican Wrestling!).(Embed or share this segment)

Baratunde Thurston is a stand up comedian, Director of Digital at The Onion and a "Black Representative." That is to say, he's occasionally been designated as the black guy at work, at school, or among his friends. His new book, which is part memoir and part satirical guide, is called How to Be Black.

He talks to us about staging student-led seminars about racism in high school at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., attending an extracurricular Afro-centric weekend program run by black nationalists, coming back to comedy and writing after working in the corporate world and more!(Embed or share this segment)

Adam Reed is a writer, director, producer and voice actor. He co-created the Adult Swim programs Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo with Matt Thompson. He's also the creator and executive producer of Archer, a series about global espionage on FX.

Archer is an animated send-up of a spy thriller, with lead spy Sterling Archer working alongside his ex-girlfriend and fellow agent Lana Turner. An impressive pool of actors voice the characters, including H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Jessica Walter, Chris Parnell, and Adam Reed himself.

Season Two of Archer premieres tomorrow night, January 27th, at 10pm on FX.

JESSE THORN: It’s The Sound of Young America, I’m Jesse Thorn. My guest on the show is Adam Reed. With his colleague Matt Thompson, he co-created the seminal [Adult Swim] series Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo. His latest project is a spy spoof that is very silly and very vulgar called Archer; the second season of the show premiers on January 27 on the FX Network.
Adam, it’s a pleasure to have you on The Sound of Young America.